Let me start with the conclusion: If you want to play this game quickly, don't be fooled by the “freedom to develop”. Freedom is reserved for casual players. If you want to speed through the game, you must prioritize it. I tested several gears and came to the conclusion immediately - attribute allocation in the early stage is more important than skills, especially in the first three days, don't rush to attack, build up physical fitness and agility first.
Why? Because the hunting income in this game is directly linked to your stamina. The higher the stamina, the more times you can hunt continuously, and the higher the experience gained per unit time. Your attack is high but your stamina is low. You have to rest after two hits, and your efficiency is lowered by your stamina. I pulled up a table myself and compared endurance flow and attack flow at the same level. Within ten minutes, the experience gain of endurance flow is about 37% higher. The specific value involves the endurance growth rate of each level, so I won't go into details. The conclusion is stable.
In terms of skill upgrading order, I recommend giving priority to the "Tracking" department to maximize footprint recognition and prey prediction. The map of this game is not big, but the prey refresh points are regular. After the tracking skill is upgraded to level 2, you can see the prey mark directly across half of the map. The time saved in running the map is pure profit. In the hunting mode, mice and rabbits have the lowest returns, but refresh the fastest, which is suitable for early stage leveling. Foxes and raccoons have high single returns, but the cost of tracking time is also high. The cost-effectiveness will only be improved after the skills are formed in the mid-term.
Let's talk about wolf species selection. The gray wolf is balanced, the jackal has high agility, and the black wolf is biased toward attack. For speedrunning, it is recommended to choose Jackal at the beginning, because agility directly and indirectly affects your displacement settlement speed when hunting. One step faster will make the entire round of operations faster. Black Wolf looks fierce, but its attack speed cannot keep up in the early stage. It is easy for small prey to lose its skills, and its efficiency is slowed down.
Don't mess with character development either. There is a hidden setting, there are two lines of "cautious" and "greedy" in the character. The cautious line can reduce the probability of hunting failure, and the greedy line can increase the single income. You must walk a cautious line when speedrunning, because failing once is equivalent to wasting a whole round of time, you can't save it by loading files, and you will lose no matter how high your income is. My suggestion is to be cautious before reaching level 3 before replenishing greed, and safely survive the early weak period.
Finally, let me talk about something that most people don't know: skins are not just about appearance. The default skin of Gray Wolf has a running speed bonus of 3%. Don't change it too early. Wait for the attributes to improve before unlocking the new skin. The growth value of the skin is linked to the level. If you change it first, you will get a low-level low bonus gear and lose blood.
That's probably it. The core of speedrunning in this game is just four words: Prioritize endurance, maximize tracking, start cautiously, and don't change skins early. According to this idea, I can finish the main boss challenge in about twelve hours. My highest record is eleven hours and forty minutes, waiting for you to break it. If you have any detailed questions, just ask downstairs and I'll get back to you as soon as I see them. 🧐